Statement of Presidential Medical Concerns to the U.S. Senate

Also, Rep. Jamie Raskin’s Letter to the White House Physician

Apr 13, 2026

A handful of influential senators reached out to us for a medical statement, which we submitted a few weeks ago—even before the Easter Sunday and the genocidal threats against Iran—signed by three dozen of some of the most eminent authorities in our field, including Nobel laureates and former department chairs. In it, we said:

We are … experienced in the diagnosis of cognitive disorders and in evaluating dangerousness to self and others. Among us are professionals whom the courts and criminal justice system regularly turn to for our expert opinion in these matters. We are also consulted by governments in matters related to national security and the psychological profiles of world leaders….
We have closely followed [Donald Trump’s] behavior and his statements over the past year. Objectively observable signs of serious medical concern include:
· Marked deterioration in cognitive functioning, evidenced by … unexplained sudden changes of course in strategic matters, both national and international….
· Grandiose and delusional beliefs, including assertions of infallibility,… with no need to consider domestic and international laws and constrained only by his “own morality.”
· Severely impaired judgment and impulse control, reflected in reckless threats of violence, advocacy of lethal force against civilians, [and] encouragement of extrajudicial actions by armed supporters….
· Significant loss of self-control and … seemingly compulsive, manic-like late-night communications—e.g., 150 social media posts in one night—fixation on perceived enemies,… and … disproportionate attacks on specific individuals and institutions.
· Escalating violence that threatens national and global stability. As Commander-in-Chief of our military—more than 5000 nuclear warheads in inter-continental missile silos, on submarines, and in bombers around the world, are ready for launch solely upon his order, and no one now has the authority to countermand his order….
It is our professional opinion that the behaviors of Donald Trump, tragically,… reflect a rapidly worsening, reality-untethered, increasingly dangerous decline. If we were called upon under the 25th Amendment to judge the President’s present ability to discharge the duties of his office, we would have to conclude that he lacks the capacity to do so.
For the reasons cited above, emphasizing that he presents a clear and present danger to our country and to the world, it is our expert opinion that Donald J. Trump is mentally unfit to be the President of the United States, and that steps to remove him from office must be undertaken with the greatest urgency.

We led with cognitive problems, even though they are not the most imminently dangerous, because of their ready comprehension by the public and the Republican fixation on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, even though Donald Trump’s cognitive impairment is much worse. Rep. Jamie Raskin received a copy of our statement, which has now been entered in the Congressional record and is expected to be brought to the Senate floor this week. It may have emboldened him to write to the White House physician, Sean Barbabella, as he has on April 10, 2026:

Dear Captain Barbabella:
According to former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, long one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest political allies, the President “has gone insane”….
Experts have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline. And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening….
The deep and growing alarm about the President’s mental fitness does not follow party lines,… with medical experts and the majority of Americans now believing the President lacks the mental sharpness and physical health to serve effectively.
This is plainly out of the realm of normal politics. When the President of the United States threatens to extinguish a civilization on social media, rants about combat missions with children at the Easter Egg Roll, and drops profane tirades on Easter morning, we have indisputably entered the realm of profound medical difficulty and concern.
In October 2025, you issued a statement declaring that the President “continues to demonstrate excellent overall health”…. the public must know whether you still stand by that assessment. As Republican congressional leaders have repeatedly said, the American people deserve to know whether our President is mentally capable of making the life-or-death decisions that his office demands.
Accordingly, no later than 5:00 p.m. on April 24, 2026, I insist that you:
1. Conduct a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results;
2. Provide a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential cognitive side effects; and
3. Make yourself available for a briefing, under oath, with Members of the Committee on the results of this assessment.
I look forward to your prompt compliance with this important and urgent oversight request.
Very truly yours,
Jamie Raskin
Ranking Member

At the Emergency Psychiatric Meeting that same day, we discussed Raskin’s championing Congress’ role for the 25th Amendment during the first Trump presidency. We also discussed how White House-employed, military-subordinate physicians are unqualified to do fitness evaluations on the commander-in-chief (we saw how Ronny Jackson fraudulently concluded that Donald Trump was mentally “fit”, based on a 10-minute screen). A fitness evaluation requires independent experts, as we indeed assembled in a panel in 2019 to perform a standard mental capacity evaluation—which revealed that Trump was not just unfit for the presidency, but for any job. We made recommendations to remove him from access to nuclear weapons and from military command, back then.

We further discussed that what a White House physician could do is apply the medical standard of care to require involuntary hospitalization. Donald Trump has now exceeded the criteria—danger to self or others for psychiatric reasons—for months if not years. And if 1.2 million dead from Covid, five dead from a U.S. Capitol attack, over 40 dead so far from ICE raids and detention, at least 168 dead from boat strikes, a projected 14 million dead by 2030 from USAID cuts, now imminent food insecurity for 45 million globally, and threats of obliteration of 90 million were not enough—there is a dangerousness risk assessment we did that was “off the charts.” A panel of the most eminent living psychiatrists submitted in June 2024 its report to New York City Probation that included a Violence Risk Appraisal Guide–Revised score of 8 and a Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Revised score of 35 for the convicted felon. For specialists who are familiar with these scores, they are at alarming levels and unequivocally requiring prolonged incarceration or hospitalization.

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee is in the process of establishing SURVIVAL UNIVERSITY. Please use the contact form to join and to help make this unprecedented effort successful. She is also leading a public course series with Preventing Violence Now, about which you can find out more and register here.